The Ukiah City Council this month delayed a vote on whether to declare a shelter crisis, which is needed for certain projects to qualify for Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) grant funding being allocated by the state of California.

“This is a unique opportunity, because usually rural areas like ours have very competitive funding opportunities,” Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley told the City Council at its last meeting Dec. 19. “In this case, there are very few restrictions, and they are one-time monies being allocated very, very quickly.”

Riley said Mendocino County will receive $4.9 million of the $500 million of HEAP grant funding being disbursed “to provide direct assistance to cities, counties, and Continuums of Care to address the homelessness crisis throughout California.” Only Continuums of Care are eligible to apply for the funding and use it for homeless services, rental assistance and capital improvements. However, to use funds for capital improvements, the governing body of that jurisdiction must declare a shelter crisis by resolution.

Riley said the county’s Continuum of Care asked for proposals and received nine applications, two of which were withdrawn. Six projects were then recommended for funding, two of which are in the city limits: the completion of the shelter at 1045 S. State Street, and construction of an additional bathroom for the shelter provided by Project Sanctuary.

However, Riley said that city staff “would prefer, if it all possible, to allocate all the resources we can to creating housing,” pointing to a “shovel-ready” housing project planned for the corner of North Orchard Avenue and Brush Street by the Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation.

“We don’t have any authority over the Continuum of Care, but staff would like the opportunity to see how we might be able to help fill the gap in funding for this project,” said Riley, adding that city staff was recommending that the City Council delay voting on declaring a shelter crisis until their next meeting in mid-January.

“(That project is) outside our jurisdiction, but not outside the need of our community,” said City Manager Sage Sangiacomo, describing the 80-units of housing (half of which would be designated for homeless individuals) as “deserving more discussion about the prioritization of those HEAP funds. It’s not that those other projects aren’t valuable and shouldn’t be considered, but the ability to get this many units built in a very short period time is a unique opportunity we should set as a priority. We believe that more discussion needs to occur about prioritizing housing.”

Two members of the audience then addressed the council, both urging the board to declare a shelter crisis, which would allow the Redwood Community Services day shelter project to receive HEAP funding.

“If you don’t declare a shelter crisis, I’m just going to be frank: There is not another revenue funding stream for shelters. I don’t know how we would fund this construction without this HEAP funding,” said Sage Wolf, the manager of homelessness and housing for RCS. “Yes, we need the housing, but for the ‘housing-first model,’ you need supportive services — you need a place for people to land when they’re having a shelter crisis, and the intention of the HEAP funding is for communities to have quick response to shelter crisis.

“We need to figure out how to build this building, we are asking for your help in funding the construction,” said Wolf, adding that the second capital improvement project being recommended for HEAP funding would provide a second bathroom for a shelter that “houses 11 families with children, and currently only has one bathroom.”

“I appreciate you not giving up on the RCHDC project, but it is important, I believe, for the city to adopt a shelter crisis resolution, because that will enable the completion of the structure at 1045 S. State Street that currently houses the winter shelter, and will house the community center,” said Second District Mendocino County Supervisor John McCowen.

“The fact that we aren’t bringing the resolution forward tonight is that we didn’t have the information on the capital projects proposed beforehand, and we wanted to be able to narrow the scope of the crisis declaration so it specifically applies to the two projects,” said Riley.

The City Council agreed to postpone the vote until its Jan. 16 meeting.